Postal scale are well known in the art; simple spring scales with scale charts which map a weight range into one or more postal rates having existed for decades. More recently, with the increased availability of solid state microprocessors, load cells and low-cost analog-to-digital (A/D) converters it has become feasible to provide electronic, digital postal scales with greatly increased capabilities. These increased capabilities have not been without price however, and part of this price has been an increasing demand placed on scale power supplies as capabilities were expanded. This problem is further aggravated by any attempt to increase the commonality of components used in a family of scales and other mailroom products; as disclosed in the commonly assigned U.S. patent application entitled, General Purpose Processor Module Mailroom Equipment, by Flavio Manduley, filed Dec. 20, 1984, Ser. No. 684,411 since clearly any common power supply must be capable of meeting the greatest peak demand in its product family.
Thus, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an electronic scale having reduced peak power demands.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide an electronic postal scale of modular design which may be expanded to an increased capacity without an increase in the size of the power supply provided.
Other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the detailed description set forth below and of the attached drawings.